Becoming a Real Runner

village runner wrote: »

best of luck tomorrow..........
Watch the breeze with interest. If agaist you on hte way out be prepared t be upto 90 seconds down. You will make it back.

Hoping the 1'30 pacers will take the thinking out of it? I know they did the first half much slower last year because i was close to them at halfway!

Anyway apparently the wind will be light an from the west, so I'm guessing it won't be a big factor.

1:29:21 by my watch. Gave it everything to stay ahead of the 1:30 pacers at the end. May have damaged my feet in the process but delighted for now!

Thursday 8th
3.8 miles @ 10:40 pace. Just a jog with my sister

Saturday 10th
Waterford Half Marathon
Preamble
Training had gone well I felt. 2 sessions per week for about 8 weeks before the race, concentrating on speed endurance (800m repeats, building up to 10 @ 5k pace and tempo runs every week). The last key session of 6 miles at race pace had gone very well, though I did it on a pancake flat canal, and the Waterford half was actually not as flat as I remembered it!! The only doubt was the Jingle Bells 5k the week before the race. Being predominantly a better runner at shorter distances I felt a sub 19 was necessary to go sub 1:30 in a Half Marathon. As it happened my 19:26 was well outside my PB and McMillan only barely predicted sub 1:30 as a result. It turned out I got sick a day later so maybe that was the cause. Thankfully by Saturday I was feeling 100% better.

Pre race
I got a lift down with Chinguetti, Brian and RK who had come to spectate. I took the safe option and wore my Kinvaras for the race. I had done most of my race pace training in Lunar racers, but had a few niggles (mainly in the hamstrings). I remembered wearing Lunar racers in the same race last year and picking up a slight injury so I went with the conservative option. The weather was calm but very cold so I wore and under armour top under the Tallaght Singlet (making it’s debut) and a hat and gloves. Did a small warm up jog, took a gel and lined up on the start line a few rows from the front and right beside the 1:30 pacers. The plan was to stick to them like glue for the first 10 miles and push on/ hang on as appropriate then.

Miles 1-6
6:42, 6:57, 6:51, 6:52, 6:51, 6:50
I spent these miles in a big bunch simply tracking the two pacers. There were loads of people with the same target it seemed and I was stuck in a bunch which made it a little uncomfortable with a lot of clipping heels. I ditched the hat after a mile and managed to tuck it into the shorts so it survived the whole race!! Despite the near zero temperatures, lack of wind meant I was roasting early on. I made a few attempts to get to the front of the group and out of the traffic but was frustrated in my efforts so I gave up and managed to hold position about 10 metres back from the second of the two pacers. This did not feel comfortable at all as there were lots of little drags and the legs felt tired already. I did however notice that my own breathing felt much less laboured than most of those around me.

Miles 7-10
6:54, 6:48, 7:03, 6:47
We turned off the main road at about mile 6 and had our first major bit of climbing of the day. The large group pretty much disintegrated which gave me the chance to get to the front of the group and alongside the lead pacer. I started to feel really good at about 7 miles and said to myself for the first time “I’ll do this”. On the 8th mile we went back downhill towards the main road again and I opened up a little gap on the lead pacer as did a few other. I decided to go with the breakaway group. Looking at the times we can’t have been more than a few seconds up on the pacers and I became conscious that my group was slowing a bit on mile 9 as I looked at the garmin to see a 7:1x av pace for the mile. I pushed on a bit despite the uphill and caught another group just ahead. I relaxed a bit on mile 10 which started with a downhill stretch but could hear the voice of the lead pacer getting closer and closer. I guess they were a few seconds behind pace and were speeding up a bit. I tried to push really hard for the last half of mile 10, which was uphill again but by the 10 mile marker (I went through in about 68:20, a 1 minute PB for the distance), the lead pacer was right on my shoulder and threatening to pull away. This was my lowest moment I felt like I was not going to be able to hold on.

Miles 10-13.1
Thankfully the 10 mile marker brought the top of the final hill and suddenly the same effort as before saw me break away from the lead pacer again. I didn’t know how far I was in front but I didn’t want to look back. Mile 11 was my fastest of the day (6:37) and I just went into the pain cave. Push! Push! Push! I was passing loads of runner now and was having to play trick with my mind to keep going. At the 11 mile marker I told myself I only needed 2 7 minute miles, keep going. Went through the 12th mile (6:45) and was surprised at that pace. I figured I had slowed. Keep the effort up, come on. A 7:30 mile will do!! I felt like stopping and puking but just kept going I didn’t look at the watch but knew the pace had dropped (it actually hadn’t, mile 13 was 6:48) just as we turned into the stadium I looked back but there was no sign of the balloons behind. I finally figured I had done it. I had nothing left for a sprint finish at all, instead I just kept going up the track crossing the line in 1:29:22 (official time).

Post race
Once I crossed the line and stopped I was in bits. I spent the next 3 minutes dry retching and trying to get my breath back, I thought I never would, but finally managed to lift my head and look for Brian and RK. They were talking to Ecoli and Brian pointed out that I had a layer of salt on my face twice as big as after Berlin (which was run in 20+ degrees of heat and blazing sun). I stumbled back for a shower after which I realised I could barely walk. I managed to limp with the others to a local leisure centre for post race refreshments but once in my feet were so sore I had to take off my boots. I realised that both feet had swollen like balloons and I couldn’t move my toes. I feared I had damaged ligaments in the feet, but it turns out it must have been cramp. I got some Ice on them in the pub a little later and within an hour they were as good as new.

I'm going to take a few days off now to recover. Feet feel fine but the legs are battered. I was planning to give the cloliffe 5k a bash on sunday but I'll see.

Weekly total 4 runs 32.6 miles




Month|No. of days Runnning|Miles
January|28/31|256.3
February|24/28|236.9
March|23/31|221.9
April|22/30|150.2
May|25/31|198.5
June|24/30|173.2
July|28/31|269.4
August|23/31|237.6
September|22/30|200
October|26/31|187.5
November|28/30|210.1
December|8/12|55.8
Total|281/346|2438

Sunday 11th- Tuesday 13th December
Took 3 days of completely to eat and drink recover from the drinking session at the weekend half marathon. Legs were due a break I guess. I planned to take the whole week off actually but by wednesday i was dying to get back into it.

Wednesday 14th
3.3 miles Recovery (pace 8:49, HR 131). Just a short run around the block to test things out Legs felt stiff and heavy but no injuries.

Thursday 15th
Decided to risk heading down to the club. The lads were doing 10 x400m in Tymon. I went from deciding I would do a lap of the park to then deciding I would just doing a few intervals from the back of the pack. In the end I did 8 intervals at just under 6 min/mile pace. Felt a bit of a tight hamstring after the 7th so skipped the 8th and 9th. Definitely not fully recovered, there was no zip in the intervals. I won't be doing the 5k on sunday now, will look at doing a slow LSR with a view to building into ultra training.
Looking forward to giving these sessions 100% from next week.
7.9 miles total



WTD 2 runs 11.2 miles


Month|No. of days Runnning|Miles
January|28/31|256.3
February|24/28|236.9
March|23/31|221.9
April|22/30|150.2
May|25/31|198.5
June|24/30|173.2
July|28/31|269.4
August|23/31|237.6
September|22/30|200
October|26/31|187.5
November|28/30|210.1
December|10/15|67
Total|283/351|2449.2

Woddle wrote: »

Hi Meno I'm doing 14 on Sunday if you're interested, a hillyish 10/11 followed by a flat 3 and congrats on the PB, nice way to end the year.

Cheers, what time are you thinking? (please don't be too early )

Woddle wrote: »

We could say 10:00am and I'll just double check with the boss later but that should be fine.

Ok, but if it has to be 11am or later I won't complain

jcsmum wrote: »

Can't believe you're back out running again after that grueling half!!

Cheers. I am lucky that my legs and body seem to recover quite quickly, besides the Conn Ultra is only 15 weeks away and it is not going to run itself

Friday 16th
4.9 miles recovery (9.07 pace)

Saturday 17th
Met up with Claralara and we tackled a hilly loop through the Dublin 'mountains'. There was a lot of ice on the footpaths so the first few miles were slow and then we were faces with a few steep inclines but we flew up them. Claralara barely broke breath on the famous 'woddle hill' :eek:. By the end of the run the pace was down around 8'30 mile. Really enjoyed this run
14.1 miles @9'10 pace with 560ft climbing

Sunday 18th
The plan was to meet woddle for the same loop as yesterday but apparently the paths were slippy so Woddle decided to do a treadmill run. I went to the Phoenix park instead where thankfully the paths weren't slippy .
12.4 miles @ 8:13 pace. The plan was to d 14 again but I was very hungry by the end and cut it a touch short. Happy enough to cover over marathon distance for the two runs. The plan will be to build these weekend long runs over the next few months to 40ish miles total in prep for the conn ultra.


WTD 5 runs 42.6 miles


Month|No. of days Runnning|Miles
January|28/31|256.3
February|24/28|236.9
March|23/31|221.9
April|22/30|150.2
May|25/31|198.5
June|24/30|173.2
July|28/31|269.4
August|23/31|237.6
September|22/30|200
October|26/31|187.5
November|28/30|210.1
December|13/18|98.4
Total|283/351|2480.6

Thursday 22nd
9 miles @8:22. Hilly enough route but felt very sluggish. Got off early for christmas just after lunchtime. Sluggishness probably down to having had nothing to eat since breakfast that morning :rolleyes:

Friday 23rd
I had planned on a few easy miles followed by a drive up north for christmas, but a few pints on thursday evening turned into a writeoff and I could barely move all day. Also felt the beginning of a cold coming on.

Saturday 24th
Had laned on being up home the night before and getting an LSR in the morning. By the time I got home though there was little light left so I just got out for a few miles:
4.4 miles @8:06. Effort was way too high for the run. Head cold now taking full effect, not helped by getting soaked on this run.

Sunday 25th
Nothing. Plan was a few miles before dinner but feeling completely awful from the cold, hardly slept the night before.

WTD 5 runs 33.5 miles

Monday 26th
Feeling much better today so I finally got saturdays run done.
14 miles @ 8:12 pace, Very hily and windy. Hope to get a good few long runs this week. I feel like I am miles behind plan for Conn Ultra. It's only 3 months away :eek:

WTD 1 run 14 miles


Month|No. of days Runnning|Miles
January|28/31|256.3
February|24/28|236.9
March|23/31|221.9
April|22/30|150.2
May|25/31|198.5
June|24/30|173.2
July|28/31|269.4
August|23/31|237.6
September|22/30|200
October|26/31|187.5
November|28/30|210.1
December|19/26|145.9
Total|292/360|2528.1[/QUOTE]